Seventh Saturday of Ordinary Time

From the Word of the Day

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. (Mark 10: 15)

How should we live this Word

When the disciples want the children to go away because they are a disturbance, Jesus instead, receives them and shows predilection for them. Children manifest simplicity of heart and attitudes, and do not have evil or hidden agendas but are full of trust toward parents and adults.

Jesus performs a paternal and maternal gesture in welcoming and caressing them and He scolds the apostles for their rudeness. Jesus sees in children their vivacity, spontaneity, and above all, their sincerity and He places them as models to which the Kingdom of Heaven belongs.

This welcoming gesture reveals the sensitivity and tenderness of Jesus toward a category of persons who did not enjoy much consideration and were deemed as not human. Jesus proposes them as models for the disciples, not because He wants them to act with infantile words and attitudes, but because children open with marvel to the mystery of life; they grasp realities that escape adults. With their attitudes of trust, awe, and openness to novelty, they recall the ‘child’ hidden in the depths of every person which must be nurtured.

Lord, grant me a child-like heart that knows how to marvel at the beauty and immensity of Your love.

The Voice of St. Francis di Sales

The Lord is looking at us with love, and looks with even more tender love at those who are weak.